- Emission standards must be known and met.- Only interested that it passes emission standards- Don't know about emissions, but safety standards must be met in some foreign countries. Japan is notorious for requiring all kinds of standards be met.- Cost a lot for each certification

I have a 2001 C240 and have been very satisfied with the car except the fm radio reception could be better. The car has the standard radio. MB dealer has tried to fix by replacing the radio and the rear window antenna, with some improvement. Is this a common problem? Has anyone added an external antenna? The loaner cars I had had the Bose radio and that worked pretty good.

Has anybody out there ever used the M-B European delivery? It seems like a pretty interesting program. Doesn't knock much off the price except for the delivery charge. If I'm going to buy one anyway, it seems like I might as well try this out.

We bought our C240/6 by European delivery last March. We'd planned a trip to Europe anyway, and the new car was icing on cake. There isn't a financial incentive to do ED unless you are planning a trip anyway. They require you to pay MSRP (less the transportation charge) when you order for factory delivery. I think that the delivery fee discount was $695? I did negotiate a better price on dealer-installed CD, though not free. The ED program provides you vouchers for a couple nights in very nice hotels (better than I usually stay in), lunch at the factory dining room (excellent), and a lovely factory tour. You can drive your car all over Europe for a couple weeks (they supply registration, plates, and up to 15 days insurance) before you drop it off for shipment. Driving in Europe isn't cheap, with premium gas $5 or 6 a gallon, and horrendous tolls on French autoroutes. And with the brand new MB, I really didn't want to drive at full autobahn speeds, or really get into the spirit of inner-city battle traffic like I would have with a rental. Delivery time after drop-off is variable - they said to expect 6 to 8 weeks, but we dropped our car off (in Stuttgart) March 30 and didn't receive it here till the day after Memorial Day, close to ten weeks. One small bonus - when we bought car tags here, the tax assessor didn't charge for automobile sales tax, because our car had already been registered and tagged in Germany. That made about a 4% discount in Alabama. YMMV, depending on local laws.

I had my C320 safely parked in my garage in my country house in NE PA. Last Sunday we had about 18 inches of snow so I had to drive my Jeep Liberty home instead of the C320. It was wild driving home in UNPAVED snow but the Jeep did fine. Anyway, I returned today (1-13-02) and tried to flatten the snow on the driveway with the Jeep. It's a pretty steep driveway, but the top is not as steep. I figured if I packed the snow down enough, the Mercedes would be able to acsend the hill with no problem. Well, the C did need a little boost before it went up but I successfully made it up and parked within a foot of the garage door. I put the emergency brake on and then took my dogs out for a walk. As I was walking them, I was looking at the Benz and then it suddenly started sliding down the driveway!!!!! Luckily it stayed straight and merely stopped at the bottom of the driveway once it hit the dry pavement. Unfortunately the alarm went off and right after that my cell phone rang. It was MB asking me if my car was ok!!!!! I was impressed!!

Has anyone else with a C320 sport driven in snow yet? I have the conti-sport tires and they seem worthless in the snow. I don't intend to change them since I use the jeep in adverse conditions. I was just wondering if the car can be driven safely in a couple of inches of snow with NO HILLS!

Yes, the Contis are next to useless in snow. Your experience should have proved that beyond a doubt...Mich MXV4s are better in snow, but dedicated snow tires are the only answer if you want to use this car in any area that sees serious snow more than occasionally.

And this story reminds me of the time we parked our new '84 190E at the far end of an empty shopping center parking lot, only to come out of the store and watch helplessly as a shopping cart was propelled by the wind from nearly 50 yards away [!!!!] taking dead aim at the car...insert silent scream here, and not-so-silent cursing...and put a nice dent in the left rear door. Now, in addition to distance, I try to gauge wind and slope, as well as the phase of the moon, when deciding where to park...sigh...

The exact same thing happened to a friend of mine. He was looking at a house which sat on a hill. The real estate agent couldn't get up the snowy/icy driveway, but he could with his Audi quattro . He was quite pleased with himself and his Audi until he came back out of the house and found his car across the street.

I have to agree with you about the Conti's being next to useless in snow. Though I went through a few New England storms with them, I never got stuck in the snow - which is what I meant by I "did very well" with them. There's a lot more to it such as traction and handling that I did not consider, as I was just glad to have arrived safely at my destination.

I am sometimes overly cautious, but prefer to live by the pilot's motto of "I'd rather be on the ground wishing I was in the air, than in the air wishing I was on the ground."

I find that my C320 is fine in the rain. I have no problem accelerating briskly from a stop in heavy rain. All I can stay is I am extremely happy to have ESP and traction control! I'm sorry to say but if Mercedes doesn't offer AWD in the next generation C, I'm switching back to my beloved A4. I had a '96 with blizzak tires and that car was UNBELIEVABLE. Think snowmobile!!

I live in Boston and routinely drive to New Hampshire and Vermont to ski. My C-240 6 speed is a champion in the snow. It does become a snowplow in any depth greater than about 4-5 inches though (height of front air dam). One thing to worry about is other cars on the road... people see how well you are doing with state of the art ABS and ESP and they think their honda or chevy is up to it and then they slide right into the back of your benz or a pole.

I "tested" the ESP in a snow covered parking lot and it does help, but is not invincible. I have yet to make a big enough mistake at high speed to check that... not looking forward to it either.

I have run I-89 to I-93 through New Hampshire on hardpack in the fast lane recently. I noticed a not so peculiar thing: only the german cars are willing to run in the hardpack in the fast lane. They generally stick together in "caravans". Do you think this is a driver mentality or a car capability or both? I myself have no problem running on hardpack at 50-65 mph... this is not for the faint of heart though. No sudden movements please...

p.s. I wouldn't try any of this if you are used to driving in Texas or Atlanta. Snow is a whole new ball game.

...ESP cannot do anything for you in the absence of traction. Nor can any AWD system...the insane behaviors we often see in the Calif mountains come from SUV drivers who think they are invincible. Fundamentally, either the tires can grip the available surface or they can't. If they can't, then you are going to continue to go in whatever direction you were going before you lost traction...into a pole, another car, a ditch, the bottom of the driveway, etc. AWD systems make people forget that in the absence of good friction between the tire and road, all control is lost. The CHP has to remind people of this in our state all the time, and still digs several dozen of these people out of the ditch every ski weekend in the Sierras.

When I first got my AWD I thought I was, maybe not invincible, but maybe just incorrigible. Then I hit an icy patch. When tires have nothing to grip neither AWD or ABS does anything for you. I was reduced to watching the curb come closer and closer, just like when I was driving my RWD with all seasons.

I hear by the end of this year ('03 model possibly) that a C320 will be available with Mercedes-Benz's 4Matic All Wheel Drive. They'd better do something to drop the price of it to make it competitive with Audi's Quattro & BMW's DSC-X (AWD systems priced at $1750). I think $Matic is a $3000 option on the E-Class right now!

Can anybody recommend an MB Dealer in the NY Metro Area? You can email me the info (email is in my profile) if this topic has been discussed. I'm fed up trying to deal with Benzel_Busch & Mercedes-benz of Nanuet. Thank you for your help.

Try Prestige Motors in Paramus,NJ. Doug Tucker is their internet salesman. Though I leased my '01 C320 Blk/Java wth C2 & C3 pkgs. It was hassle free and no money down. Except for 1st month payment and bank fee. I walked out with a new car for $1191.

Another strategy, would be to shop around get the best price and present it in writing to MB of Manhattan on the westside and they will match it. This dealership is actually owned by MB and you can't do better than that, in having the factory looking after your car.

That is my only regret in negotiating for my car that I found out after the fact that the manufacturer would have matched it. But when my lease is up in three years that is excatly what I will do, as I live in Manhattan. Good luck!

I suggest you call Alan Friedman at Ray Catena motors in Edison, NJ. I bought my first MB from him in 1995 and almost bought from him again when I traded for my Y2K C230 - however, my work schedule and driving from Georgia (where I now live) precluded that.

I found Alan easy to work with and very helpful. He helped me get what I needed at the best possible price, compared to other NJ dealers at the time. I also appreciate that he convinced me to lease/own a new MB - a difficult decision for me at the time, but an excellent one. The MB experience is something I truly enjoy, to include participating in this message board, both sharing with and learning from others.

I noticed that the so called internet salesman was mentioned at least twice here. First was last year about Febrary. My experience was, last year, I sent an email to him and got no reply. So I went to talk dirctly to some other salesman and made the order. I think it is better talk to people face to face.

In the middle of a long trip last week, I wanted to fill some gas, but the fuel tank flap was stuck. I read the mannual, on page 349, it said, there is a mannual release button somewhere inside the trunk, but I just couldn't find it, I also searched inside the trunk trim. After an hour, I gave up my effect, and called the roadside assist.

Could anybody tell me where is the button? And, has anyone's fuel flap been stuck?

Friendly Motorcars in NY is a very good dealership and Mike Caifa is a very helpful salesperson. He can be reached at 845-298-0600. If you do call you can let him know John Rowland gave you the reference.

In my experience, Ray Catena charges strictly MSRP. However, the dealership is like Disney World and they have incredible customer service, including vehicle pickup and delivery for service (they leave you a loaner car), and you can pull into any of their dealers at any time and basicaly use them as a car wash.

If you really like that "original" German windhsield washer fluid, Wurth makes it, you can get it from motorhead.net: